‘Clear and ambitious’ vision for improving adult services
Adult social care04 March 2026
North Northamptonshire Council says it is committed to the continuous improvement of its Adult Social Care Services, and that significant strides are being made in improving outcomes for residents.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has today published its first-ever assessment of how North Northamptonshire Council delivers services for adults, as part of a new national programme assessing all local authorities in England.
The CQC is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. It works together with the public, health and social care systems and providers of care to protect people, and to promote and improve the quality of care.
The council has received an overall rating of ‘Requires Improvement: Evidence shows some shortfalls’ with a score of 50%.
The council says it acknowledges the findings and remains focused on what matters most – improving outcomes for people.
The CQC report highlighted a number of positives with over 66 per cent of people in North Northamptonshire expressing satisfaction with their care and support. People also reported having regular contact with practitioners, receiving tailored support, and benefiting from clear and consistent communication. They also described assessments as comprehensive. The CQC also noted that the council’s support to help people live independently in their own homes was considerably better than the England average.
The findings also identified areas for improvements including some delays for assessments and reviews which meant people were waiting for support. A variation in approach across teams was also identified along with a conclusion that further work was required to coordinate out of hours support and unplanned respite for carers to respond to emergency situations.
Despite the overall rating showing areas for development, the quality and breadth of strengths already in place provide a strong and credible platform for accelerated improvement.
The council said it has a “clear and ambitious vision” for adult social care and is committed to the delivery of its Adult Social Care Strategy, agreed by the council’s Executive in February 2025. Improving outcomes for residents is also the purpose and focus of its new corporate plan which sets out the priorities that it will be focusing on over the next four years.
We fully acknowledge the findings and remain committed to the continuous improvement of our Adult Social Care Services. It has been a year since the CQC commenced their assessment of North Northamptonshire, and we are pleased that the findings have been published. We are confident that in the 12 months since CQC started their assessment our continuous improvement activity has delivered measurable progress and improved outcomes for our local community. We look forward to these improvements being reflected in future assessments.Cllr Eddie McDonald, North Northamptonshire Council’s deputy leader and executive member for adult services
We are pleased that the report reflects our own assessment of the areas that we are already focusing our improvement activity on. We have been able to demonstrate significant stabilisation of our teams, consistent improvement and greater involvement of people who use care and support since the council was created under 5 years ago in April 2021. The rating reflects that the council is progressing on its improvement journey, but that opportunities remain for us to continue to drive improvement of our services and better outcomes for our residents. We look forward to welcoming CQC back in the future where we will be able to demonstrate the delivery of our Adult Social Care Strategy and ongoing improvement programme.David Watts, Executive Director Adults, Health Partnerships and Housing
Since the report, the council said it had made positive strides in improving services including reduced waiting lists across all of its adult social care teams, strengthening quality assurance, workforce development, and performance reporting, as well as the establishment of a strong co-production programme, expert by experience network and improved feedback processes. The council has also redesigned services to ensure greater consistency of experience for people using Adult Social Care Services.
The council said the findings are indicative of national challenges around adult social care services, with four out of five of East Midlands councils receiving a CQC rating of ‘Requires Improvement’.
Work will now continue with the CQC and health and social care partners as the council looks to deliver more improvements.
The full CQC report will be available on the CQC website from publication.